Magical Twins
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: When eight-year-old Dudley's magic suddenly manifests, Vernon throws Dudley and Harry out, and the two flee together, finally ending up in Minerva's and Severus' care. Completely AU, partly OOC, mentioning abuse!Dursleys, sick!Harry/Dudley/Severus.
1. Chapter 1

**Magical Twins **

**Chapter 1**

It was the last day before the beginning of the Christmas holidays, a time, which eight-year-old Harry dreaded immensely. He hated holidays in general, but nothing could be as bad as the winter holidays. During the first days, he always had to cook Christmas meals for the Dursleys, only to be thrown in his cupboard to spend very lonely holidays, listening to all the excitement that was going on outside his tiny room.

At the moment, Harry was sitting at his desk in his primary school, trying to concentrate on the essay he had to write, while his classmates were eating their lunch packets.

"Don't you have any lunch with you, Harry?" the teacher enquired softly, throwing the small child a pitying look.

"I have, but I'm not hungry," Harry lied, partly glad that he indeed didn't feel hungry at the moment.

Suddenly, everyone's attention was drawn to Dudley and Thomas, both sitting in the row behind Harry.

"You took my chocolate," Dudley shouted, angrily trying to grab something out of Thomas' box.

"No, that's mine," the other boy replied angrily, fiercely kicking Dudley in the ribs, causing him to fly a few metres through the room.

"You'll regret that," Dudley hissed, glaring at the box on the boy's table, and all of a sudden, in front of everyone's eyes the chocolate from Thomas' box moved and slowly hovered through the air over to Dudley, who quickly unwrapped the sweet and put it into his mouth, before he let out a shocked squeak and dashed out of the room, spitting the chocolate out as he ran.

Without even thinking, Harry ran after Dudley, catching up with him out in the hall, where Dudley was sitting on the floor, leaned against the white wall.

"I'm a freak just like you," he sobbed angrily.

"You're all right, Dudley. Such things happen. You know they happen to me all the time, but nobody calls you freak," Harry replied soothingly, hesitantly putting a hand on Dudley's arm, noticing that for the first time in their lives Dudley seemed to not mind the body contact.

"They will now," Dudley cried. "The teacher is going to tell Mum and Dad, and they will be so disappointed. You know how they are. They're going to hate me just as much as they hate you."

"Then we still have each other," Harry whispered quietly, thinking, '_I'd love Dudley to be a freak just like me. Everything would be so much fun together_.'

HP

Only a few hours later, Harry should know how right Dudley had been. Vernon pulled him out of his cupboard and began to shout.

"You ungrateful little freak. Was it not enough to ruin all our lives? Now you have infested Dudley with your freakishness! Get out of the house!" With that, Vernon shoved Harry and Dudley out of the house, while Petunia was standing there in shock, her hand pressed over her mouth, unable to say anything. Vernon pushed the two boys into the car and drove away.

Harry and Dudley sat next to each other, frightened. After an amount of time that seemed to be endless to the boys, Vernon stopped the car and walked around it, opening the back door at Dudley's side.

"Get out!" he spat. "I never ever want to see you again!" With that he pushed both of them down a hill, causing them to roll down faster and faster until they finally came to rest on a snow-covered field.

'_Thank God it's snowy_,' Harry mused, looking at the sky that was just getting dark, '_so we can at least see something. Otherwise, it would be completely dark_.' "Dudley, are you all right?" he queried, trying to keep his teeth from chattering.

"S...so c... c... cold," Dudley replied, scrambling onto his feet.

"It is," Harry replied, shivering violently.

"W... what are we going to do now?" Dudley asked, frightened, throwing his cousin an expecting look.

"We'll hide together. Let me try something." He looked intensely at his cousin's features and wished to look like his cousin, knowing from experience that he was able to change his exterior, since he had often spent the time in his cupboard changing parts of his body just out of boredom.

"Wow, how did you do that?" Dudley asked in amazement. "Now we look like twins. Cool. So what are we going to do now?" he repeated his earlier question.

Harry remained pensive for a moment, before he replied, "Do you remember when I made myself jump up onto the school roof when I was running away from you and your friends?"

Dudley nodded wearily.

"Take my hand. We'll both try to wish us somewhere safe," Harry suggested, reaching out for the other boy's arm.

"Do you think that'll work?" Dudley asked, doubtfully eying his smaller cousin.

"I don't know. Let me try," Harry tried to reassure him. '_I don't know why, but I think it should work_,' he mused as he concentrated on his wish, holding on to Dudley's arm like a lifeline.

Suddenly, he felt a tingling sensation run through his body, mixing up with the cold and wet from the snow, before he became very dizzy. Finally, the world turned black.

HP

When Dudley's mind slowly turned to awareness, he noticed that they were both lying in the snow in front of an incredibly large stone building. '_This looks like a castle. What are we doing here_?' he wondered, anxiously looking around. A few metres to the side, he could see a lake that was reflecting the rays of the early morning sun in a golden light. '_It was just going to be dark; did we spend the whole night out here in the snow_?' Dudley mused terrified, realising that he couldn't keep his teeth from chattering and his whole body was shaking from the cold. Harry still seemed to be fast asleep.

Somehow feeling too weak to scramble onto his feet, Dudley leaned over to Harry, shaking him forcefully. "Harry, wake up. It's too cold here," he said, pleadingly looking at his cousin, who merely let out a few coughs in return as he slowly woke up.

HP

"Where are we?" Harry asked, shocked at how hoarse his voice sounded, just when a deep, silky voice interrupted him.

"Good morning boys. May I ask what you're doing here?"

Harry and Dudley looked up in fright, only to see a tall man, completely dressed in what seemed to be a black one-piece.

"Good morning sir," Harry was the first to reply. '_What are we going to do_?' he thought frantically. '_We can't tell them our real names; otherwise they'll just send us back to the Dursleys_.'

"Excuse me, sir, my father threw us out, and we were wishing for a safe place and came here," Dudley stammered. His speech was interrupted by several sneezes and coughs.

The tall man raised an eyebrow, throwing the boys a questioning look. "Your names?" he drawled, causing Harry's thoughts to go haywire.

'_Julia Taylor_,' he remembered the name of a girl in his primary school, whom he liked a lot. "We're Dudley and Julian Taylor," he croaked, feverishly trying to keep his teeth from chattering.

"Well, come inside before you catch your death," the man sneered, motioning the boys to follow him towards the huge entrance door.

HP

Realising that the boys were obviously too cold to move their limbs, Severus gently helped them up and led them into the castle. '_I've never heard of a magical family with the name Taylor_,' he pondered, '_on the other hand, at least the kids must be wizards; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to apparate to Hogwarts. They must have spent most part of the night in the cold; I better take them to Poppy. Maybe she'll be able to prevent them from catching pneumonia_.'

"As both of you seem to have caught a cold outside in the snow, I shall take you to the infirmary," Severus announced, observing how the larger boy nodded, while his skinny brother's face turned even whiter than it had been before.

"Follow me; don't dawdle," Severus instructed the boys, leading them to the hospital wing, where he motioned them to sit on a bed as he strode towards the Mediwitch's office, his robes dramatically billowing behind him.

Dudley immediately complied, making himself comfortable by gathering the covers around his shivering form, while Julian uncertainly stood next to the bed, following the tall man with his eyes.

Severus entered the office and quickly filled the Mediwitch in, who immediately turned into Healer's mode and hurried to the two boys' beds.

"Sit or better lie down," she instructed Julian, gently helping him up on the bed, covering him with the blankets. "Are you twins?" she asked softly, turning to Dudley, who gave her a small nod. Pulling her wand out of her robe pocket, she noticed that both boys backed up, eyeing her wand in fright.

"Oh, are you not used to magic?" she queried in surprise, glancing at Severus, who stepped next to Julian's bed.

"There is no such thing as magic," Dudley replied knowingly, while Julian shivered violently, partly because of the cold, partly because he remembered the nightmare he sometimes had, in which someone waved a similar stick, causing a green flash to move towards himself, hurting him badly.

"There is magic, and you're both wizards, who are able to do magic. That's why you managed to come here to our school," Severus explained patiently in his softest voice, which he normally only used for his Slytherin first-years, who were either abused or extremely frightened for some reason. "Madam Pomfrey will check on you using her wand, so we'll know what potions you need to feel better quickly."

"All right," Julian croaked, causing Dudley to nod anxiously, slightly moving his position towards Julian's bed.

"Very well, then I'll begin with your brother," Poppy said softly, waving her wand over Julian to cast a comprehensive diagnostic spell.

After a minute, a small parchment emerged from the tip of her wand. Poppy frowned, holding it out to her colleague so they could read together.

_Age: Eight years, four months, twenty-one days  
Height: 1,32 m  
Weight: 50 percent underweight  
Level of magic: 40 percent,  
Magic depleted by 90 percent  
Temperature 35.5 too low  
Signs of illness:  
Beginning pneumonia,  
Several bones broken and improperly healed,  
Bruises and scars covering 82.3 percent of body,  
Eye sight poor_

Sighing, the Mediwitch pressed the parchment into Severus' hand and turned to the other boy, making a similar parchment appear.

_Age: Eight years, five months, twenty-seven days  
Height: 1,42 m  
Weight: 50 percent overweight  
Level of magic: 10 percent,  
Magic depleted by 50 percent  
Temperature 35.6 too low  
Signs of illness:  
Beginning pneumonia_

Madam Pomfrey let out a gasp, showing the parchment to her colleague, who raised an eyebrow before he sneered, "How is it possible for twins to be a whole month apart, especially if the parents are Muggles and unable to magically prolong the pregnancy?"

_

* * *

tbc..._

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	2. Chapter 2

**Magical Twins – Chapter 2**

"It might be possible, if at least one of the babies is very powerful and able to shorten or prolong the pregnancy for himself or his twin," Pomfrey replied thoughtfully, closely examining the two parchments. "Julian here is extremely powerful. His magic is already as high as it should be when he is old enough to attend Hogwarts in two and a half years' time. Dudley's magic is either very weak or has only begun to manifest itself recently. Julian could have either prolonged the pregnancy or thrown his brother out early for some reason."

"Our parents always wondered about that but explained it with the fact that I'm a freak," Julian lied, not really sure why Dudley and he had wordlessly agreed to pretend to be twins.

"We always had a party on my birthday," Dudley added in a small voice.

"Very well then, maybe we should record your birthday for both of you then," Pomfrey said thoughtfully, turning back to Severus. "Don't you think so, Severus? Otherwise, the whole school will infinitely bother them with that question."

"I agree," Severus drawled, eager to leave the hospital wing and check on his little snakes, before they left for the winter holidays.

"Severus, I'm sorry; I know it's the last day of term, but I need you to urgently brew the pneumonia potion for them, and later on, they'll probably need a strong fever reducer. In the meantime, I'll call Minerva and fill her in about our guests. Maybe she can find something out. I assume Albus has already left for his vacation?"

"Yes," Severus sighed. "I accompanied him to the Apparition point; that's why I was outside and discovered the children lying in the snow. It's strange to imagine that he won't be here over Christmas."

"You're right. That's definitely a first," Poppy agreed, smiling.

HP

Julian watched as the man left the hospital wing. '_He was very nice_,' he mused, not used to people being kind to him.

"I could see that you have many old injuries, which I'm going to heal when you're recovered from the pneumonia. However, if there is anything that hurts, you must tell me, and I'll heal it immediately," Madam Pomfrey told him as she tightly wrapped both boys in warm blankets.

"I'm fine," Julian replied in a small voice, feeling the heat creep in his face that turned red by embarrassment.

"My chest hurts," Dudley complained, looking anxiously at the Mediwitch.

"That's because of the pneumonia. I suppose your chest hurts as well?" Pomfrey gave Julian a sharp look.

"A bit," he whispered, uncomfortably averting his eyes to his bed covers.

"Professor Snape is just brewing the potion for your pneumonia. That'll make you feel better quickly," Poppy reassured the boys and called Misty, her personal house-elf.

Misty appeared with a small pop, causing both boys to let out a gasp. "Misty is my house-elf," the Mediwitch explained gently, turning to the small elf. "Misty, please bring breakfast for Dudley and Julian here, and ask Minerva to join us for a moment."

"Yes, Mistress Poppy," Misty replied softly, and Julian watched in amazement how her large ears nearly touched the floor as the small elf bowed deeply, before she vanished with another pop.

Mere seconds later, breakfast appeared in front of Julian and Dudley. Poppy gently helped them sit up and instructed them to eat. Julian hesitantly looked at Dudley, who immediately began to wolf down his toasts and nearly choked on the juice, before he queried, "What's that?"

"That is pumpkin juice," Poppy explained in a gentle voice. "Now, Julian, even if you don't feel well, you still have to eat your breakfast."

Julian looked up startled at the sudden change in the Healer's voice that had become very stern. "Yes, sorry," he mumbled, hesitantly taking a bite from the toast. Ten minutes later, his plate was empty. "Thank you very much. This was absolutely delicious," he thanked the Mediwitch, who came to take the empty plates away, just when a very old woman in a long, green dress entered the room.

Madam Pomfrey quietly spoke to the elder lady in a small voice, before she turned back to them and introduced Julian and Dudley. "This is Professor McGonagall, our Deputy Headmistress."

"Hello Julian, hello Dudley," Minerva said gently as she conjured a chair for herself between the two beds. "Please tell me a bit about yourselves. What are your parents' names? Where do you live?"

"Our parents are Vernon and uh... Rose Taylor," Julian began to explain, seeing that Dudley threw him a helpless look.

"We lived in London, but they threw us out yesterday, when I did magic for the first time," Dudley continued as Julian ended up in a coughing fit. "They always called Julian a freak, but when they noticed I could do magic as well, they threw us out. My father drove us to a field and left us there, and Julian used magic to take us somewhere where people wouldn't hate us because of it or so he said." He slowly trailed off.

"Very well," Minerva said thoughtfully.

"Oh please, can we stay here?" Julian queried, throwing the woman a pleading look. "People are so nice here. Never has anyone be so kind to us," he continued in a small voice. "I've never felt so comfy and full like after this gorgeous breakfast. Please don't send us away."

"We won't send you away, if we can help it," Minerva replied reassuringly as not to upset the sick child. "I'll speak to my colleagues to see if anyone would be willing to take you in, and I'll have to speak with your guardians though in order to gain the guardianship over you. Considering you're both very ill, you'll have to stay here in the hospital wing for a few days. Before Madam Pomfrey releases you, I'm going to find something out," she promised, before she returned to the Headmaster's office to consult the huge book of Britain's magical children.

HP

While Madam Pomfrey made the children drink a potion that caused them to succumb to a much needed healing sleep, Minerva slowly made her way to the gargoyle, deep in thoughts. '_Something seems familiar about Julian, although he looks very much alike his brother, but I don't know what it is_,' she mused as she entered Dumbledore's office, heading straight to the huge book that had his place on the shelf next to the Sorting Hat.

"Twenty-third of June, 1980," she mumbled, looking at the book in disbelief. '_There is no entry, but Poppy certainly has made sure the birth date. How strange!_' Closely examining the page, she found Draco Malfoy's entry for the fifth of June as well as Harry Potter's for the thirty-first of July. '_They're both close, but they can't have to do anything with the Taylor twins_,' she thought. '_I'll have to ask Albus about the matter. For the time being, we should keep them here. Maybe Severus would be willing to become their guardian. He was the one who found them, and he's much younger than me. I'm definitely too old to raise two eight-year-olds_.'

With that, the Deputy Headmistress returned to the hospital wing to share her thoughts with her best friend Poppy.

HP

"You can't mean that, Minerva," Severus replied flatly at his former teacher's suggestion. "I'm not a fatherly type. I won't be able to raise two boys."

"Well, they're already eight and a half years old, and they both seem very good-mannered and nice children," Poppy threw in, looking at her colleagues in amusement.

"No. I can't do that."

"Ah, but Severus..." Minerva began to counter when Poppy interrupted her.

"Maybe both of you should become their guardians together. In two and a half years, they're going to enter Hogwarts anyway."

"Very well," Severus gave in, raising an eyebrow at his older colleague.

"All right," Minerva agreed. "However, we still have to try to find their parents and properly gain the guardianship from them, provided it's true that they threw them out and the two of them didn't just run away."

"Even if they ran away, they certainly didn't just do so without reason, Minerva," Poppy said in a very upset tone. "Dudley is fine, because his magic seems only just have manifested; however, Julian is definitely neglected and abused, and if we find out who their parents are, we have to bring them to court because of child abuse."

"Very well," Minerva said, sighing. "I suggest we ask the house-elves to make a room for them and connect it to both our quarters, so they can move into their own room as soon as Poppy releases them."

"That's a good idea, Minerva," Poppy replied warmly. "However, it'll be at least a week, before I'll be able to release them. They both caught pneumonia, and Julian has already developed a high fever, while Dudley is still suffering from hypothermia."

HP

Later the same day, Minerva and Severus inspected the room, which the house-elves had added to their quarters. It was kept in several shades of light blue and white. On the two longer sides, it held a comfortable bed each as well as a desk, chair and a wardrobe. While on one side there was a door leading to a bathroom and another going out into the corridor in front of the hospital wing, the other side was equipped with a huge bookshelf and a magical window that allowed the view onto the Hogwarts grounds, the lake and parts of the Forbidden Forest. The two shorter sides each held a door, one of them leading into the living room of Minerva's quarters, the other going into Severus' living room.

"Thank you for agreeing to do this together with me, Severus," Minerva said softly, throwing her younger colleague a grateful smile.

"Well, you know how I feel about child abuse," Severus replied, raising an eyebrow at the older witch.

"I don't know, but these kids seem somehow familiar, especially Julian," Minerva said thoughtfully.

"You don't know why the boy looks familiar?" Severus queried, smirking. "It's his eyes. They're green. Just like Lily's eyes were," he added, his expression darkening considerably.

"Lily!" Minerva gasped. "But the boy can't be Harry Potter now, can he? He doesn't have a twin brother, and I don't think an eight-year-old would lie about his name now, would he?"

"No, I don't think so, especially not if it was Potter," Severus replied, shaking off the thought. "Poppy certainly would have noticed his scar anyway."

_

* * *

tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews! I appreciate them very much! Please excuse that I'm not taking the time to reply to all of them, because I assume it's in everyone's interest that I use my time to quickly write the next chapter. I always answer to (reasonable) questions though.  
_

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	3. Chapter 3

**Magical Twins – Chapter 3**

Julian and Dudley both remained very ill over Christmas, and only on the last day of the holidays, Poppy reluctantly released them to their own room.

"They're still not well and have to take it easy for a while," she instructed Minerva and Severus. "I will check on them once a day to make sure they recover completely. However, I'm afraid their immune systems could be damaged by depleting their magic and catching pneumonia after being out in the cold for too long. If it wasn't for their magic that kept them warm and alive, they both wouldn't have survived that night. So they might be susceptible to other illnesses and bugs, especially magical ones, since they haven't been confronted with those yet."

"Hmmm, we were just considering if we should send them to the primary school at Hogsmeade or let one of the house-elves teach them normal primary school knowledge," Minerva replied thoughtfully.

"I believe at least from the medical point of view home schooling would be better in their case," Poppy said firmly, glancing from Minerva to Severus.

"Very well then; let's speak to the house-elves tomorrow morning. We can leave it to them who teach the boys and where they hold their lessons," Severus said, glancing at the two boys, who were fast asleep in their new beds.

During the holidays, Minerva and Severus had tried to gain information about the Taylors. They had even asked the Ministry for help; however, they still didn't have a clue who the boys' parents were. To their immense relief, the Headmaster agreed that they should take the twins in and let them grow up at Hogwarts.

As soon as Poppy deemed the children fit to accompany Minerva, Severus and herself to the Ministry, the five took a Portkey that brought them straight to the family division. Julian and Dudley were asked several questions about their past and their parents, and Poppy provided the responsible Ministry employee with enough material to prove the child abuse at the hand of their Muggle parents. Finally, Minerva and Severus were granted the permanent guardianship over the boys. Poppy Pomfrey and Albus Dumbledore were made their godparents.

"Please remember that their parents still are their Muggle guardians," the woman at the Ministry informed the Hogwarts teachers. "However, you don't have to fear taking them into the Muggle world, because if anything happened, the Magical guardianship would always override the Muggle one."

The same evening, Julian and Dudley made their first appearance at the Great Hall for dinner, where the Headmaster introduced them as Julian and Dudley Taylor and asked the students to be kind to the smaller boys, who from now on would take their meals at random tables together with the students.

"I suggest you change tables at every meal," he gently instructed the twins as he finished his speech.

Julian and Dudley exchanged a quick look and headed for the Slytherin table, the only table that held a few known faces, because Severus had seen fit to unobtrusively introduce them to the Slytherin first-years earlier that week.

HP

In the morning, their classes with the house-elves began. Julian and Dudley were both enthusiastic to learn more about magic, about Hogwarts, and about the elves in general. Every morning, two house-elves popped into their room, took one of them by the hand and apparated them into the huge house-elves' quarters, where they had prepared a classroom for the two human boys.

"Can you teach us how to apparate within Hogwarts and to make us invisible like you do?" Dudley queried one day, causing the two elves, who were instructing them that morning, to laugh.

"Of course, Master Dudley, Master Julian, we cans teaches you if you wants. It's very easy for us."

'_That's absolutely amazing_,' Julian mused as he invisibly managed to pop into the Gryffindor common room and back a few weeks later.

During the following weeks, the house-elves taught them everything they knew about the castle, how to talk with the castle, how to make additional rooms, how to tap into the castle's magic if necessary, and they introduced them to Hogwarts just like they'd do with an elf child.

Two weeks before the beginning of the summer holidays, Barney, the Head house-elf, made them do a test, after which he declared, "You both finished your elves' education. You have all the elves' knowledge in order to become a house-elf at Hogwarts if you wanted. Congratulations! During the two weeks until the holidays, you will help the house-elves do their work, and after the summer holidays, you will learn human primary school knowledge."

"Thank you very much," Dudley and Julian both replied enthusiastically.

'_Human primary school knowledge is much more boring_,' Julian thought sadly when he went to bed that night. '_Being a house-elf at Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad now, would it?_'

HP

One night, Julian woke up in the middle of the night. The huge numbers that were displayed at the ceiling showed him that it was a quarter to three in the morning. Surprised, because he normally used to sleep through the night, he wondered what had caused him to wake up, until he heard a muffled cough from the direction of Severus' quarters.

'_Maybe Severus is ill and needs help_,' he thought, made himself invisible and with a snip of his fingers popped himself into his guardian's bedroom, where his trained house-elf instincts could sense the teacher.

Severus was lying half on his side, half on his stomach, clutching his pillow with both hands. His face was as white as his pillow, while his cheeks were deeply flushed, and Julian observed as small shivers were shaking the tall man's figure.

'_He is definitely ill_,' he realised, made himself visible and hesitantly approached his guardian's bed.

"Severus, are you ill?" he asked softly as he stood next to the man and carefully laid a hand on his forehead, noticing that he was burning up.

"I'm fine," Severus growled without even opening his eyes. "Go back to bed, child."

Julian quickly popped into the auxiliary room of the elves' quarters, thinking of what he needed, only to return seconds later with a thermometer and a cool cloth in his hands. Easing the thermometer under the hardly even resisting man's tongue, he gently placed the cold cloth on Severus' forehead, before he hesitantly sat on the edge of the bed, quietly observing his guardian's features as they waited.

"Thirty-nine point eight," he gasped as he took the thermometer back. "That's nearly as high as my fever was when I had pneumonia. Severus, can I get you a potion or something?"

"Yes, a fever reducer and the flu potion. One of the green phials on the fifth shelf from the top on the third shelf from the left side, and one of the light orange phials on the second shelf from the bottom second shelf from the left side please."

Julian popped away, returning seconds later with the two phials.

"Am I delirious, or did you just apparate?" Severus queried, blinking a few times.

"Let me quickly help you drink this; then you won't be delirious anymore," Julian replied, making a mental note to be more careful the next time. '_I am so stupid. We promised the house-elves not to show any human that we can apparate_,' he mused as he gently helped Severus to take his potions, before he lowered him back into his pillows and watched the man drift off to sleep.

Knowing that his guardians always kept looking after him when he and Dudley were ill, and both of them had been sick frequently since they had come to Hogwarts, Julian decided to spend the rest of the night at his guardian's side. As Severus and Minerva often did to him and Dudley, he bathed Severus' hot face with the cold cloth every now and then, flinching back badly when Severus woke up with a jolt.

"Are you still here?" Severus croaked. "You should go back to bed; otherwise, you'll catch the wizard's flu from me, considering how weak your immune system is."

"It's all right, sir. You're very ill, and I wanted to help making you feel better. Shall I call Aunt Poppy for you?"

"No!" Severus hissed, apparently terrified by the thought of having a fussing Mediwitch in his bedroom. "Promise that you won't tell anyone that I'm sick."

"Well, I'll have to tell Dudley of course, but I promise not to tell Aunt Poppy or Minerva," Julian reluctantly gave in. He once more checked on his guardian and gave him his next dose of potions, before he promised to be back after breakfast and returned to Dudley's and his room to fill his brother in.

Julian and Dudley took turns looking after the sick man, and when Minerva instructed them to fetch Severus for dinner, since he had already skipped breakfast and lunch, Dudley kept the promise Julian had made and told her Severus was busy inventing a potion and had asked them to excuse himself for the whole weekend.

However, on Sunday morning, Severus' fever exceeded forty degrees, and the twins became very worried. "Julian, we should call Aunt Poppy. He doesn't get better at all," Dudley said in concern, watching his twin brother trying to cool down the man.

"We can't tell her. I promised," Julian replied in frustration. "Wait, Dudley, let me call Misty. She'll know what to do." He popped into the house-elves' quarters and hesitantly entered Misty's room, knowing that Poppy's personal elf was also the Healer for the house-elves. He quickly told the small elf about his problem, throwing her an anxious look.

"Well, if it's the wizard's flu and you gaves him the necessary potions, he'll be all right," Misty said thoughtfully. "Let me go and take a look at him." With that the elf popped into Severus' bedroom, waving her hand to check on the wizard.

"Yes, it is the wizard's flu, but he'll be fine by tomorrow morning," she whispered to Julian and Dudley as she once more waved her hand, spelling a considerable amount of healing magic into Severus' system.

"Thank you so much, Misty," Julian said gratefully, sighing in relief as he noticed Severus' features to relax significantly.

On Monday morning, Severus was completely healed and thanked the twins profusely, before he headed to his classroom to prepare everything for his first class.

HP

After breakfast in the Great Hall, Julian and Dudley popped into the elves' quarters in order to work with the elves during the day. During the previous week, they had helped cleaning the four Houses, washing the students' clothes, and cleaning the floors all over the castle.

"This week, you're going to help Suzy and Loony with the teachers' quarters, the classrooms, the library, and the Great Hall," Barney instructed them, causing Julian and Dudley to bow and follow Suzy and Loony out of the elves' quarters.

Julian and Dudley were still amazed by the convenient spells and tricks the house-elves knew to clean a teacher's quarters within five minutes. However, on this morning, Julian wasn't feeling well at all. His whole body was sore, and he felt hot and cold at the same time. At first, he tried as best as he could to hide from Dudley and the two elves how miserable he felt; however, when Suzy showed him a spell to dust the whole library with one wave of his hand for the third time, admonishing him to concentrate on the task, he felt so dizzy that he sat on the floor.

"I'm sorry. I don't feel so well today. May I take a short break?" he admitted in a small voice, causing the two elves to lean over him. While Suzy gave him a concerned look, Loony laid a cold hand on his forehead and gasped.

"He has a burning fever," she said to Suzy. "Call Misty."

Seconds later, Misty was at Julian's side, waving her hand over him, before she peered in his eyes and explained, "You obviously caught the wizard's flu from Master Severus. I'm going to pop you into your bed now, and then I'll call Poppy. Since you're a human child, she has to look after you. I'll still check on you from time to time." With that Misty popped away, placing Julian on his own bed.

HP

Very late that night, Minerva was sitting on the edge of Julian's bed, worriedly bathing his hot face with an ice-cold towel. "I'm very proud of you, Julian. The house-elves told us that you're both very good students and learned a lot during these few months since you came to Hogwarts in spite of being ill so often. I'm very happy to have two fine sons," she said softly as she watched the child sleep.

Suddenly, Julian cracked his eyes open. "Really?" he croaked. "You're proud of us?"

"Yes, I am, my boy," Minerva reassured the child, glancing into his glassy green eyes as she pried a few strands of hair from his face to gently press a kiss on his forehead. All of a sudden, her eyes caught a very thin line like a scar that belonged to someone else's head.

_

* * *

tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked this chapter too._

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	4. Chapter 4

**Magical Twins – Chapter 4**

"Julian?" Minerva asked softly, only to add in disbelief, "Harry?"

Beads of sweat suddenly began to run over the child's face as the boy was hit by a panic attack that confirmed her sudden suspicions.

"Julian, listen to me," she said softly. "It's all right. I promise I'll keep your secret. I'll merely inform Severus and Aunt Poppy, but we'll keep it for us. You have to tell us the truth though. All right?"

"All right," Julian croaked, feeling that he could trust Minerva with his life. "There's not much to tell. He's my cousin Dudley; everything else we said was the truth."

"Very well," Minerva replied wearily, resolving to have a word with Lily's sister during the summer.

HP

'_Will she find out who our guardians are? Will we have to go back to the Dursleys?_' Julian couldn't help worrying continuously. Dudley, who came down with the flu on the next day, noticed that Julian was worrying about something; however, Julian kept the matter to himself so as not to make Dudley fret as well. So far, neither Minerva nor Severus had lost another word about the matter, but when Julian's recovery took considerably more time than Dudley's, Minerva decided to bring up the topic once more.

"Julian, you know that you're our son now and that you'll always be our son whatever happens, don't you?" she asked softly, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

"Did you already speak with Severus and Aunt Poppy about it?" Julian queried, throwing his guardian an anxious look.

"Of course I spoke with them, Julian," Minerva replied thoughtfully. "Have you ever finished reading the book '_Hogwarts: A History_'?"

"Yes," Julian replied in surprise. "I love that book and I made many notes into my copy of what the elves told me about the elves' history."

"The elves taught you about elves history?" Minerva queried, astonished.

"Uh, well, we wanted to know everything, including the history of the elves," Julian replied in a small voice. "Were we not supposed to...?" He slowly trailed off, averting his eyes to his covers.

"Julian," Minerva said calmingly, laying a cool hand on his arm, "I'm glad you're willing to learn many things. Knowledge is something very valuable, which no one can take from you. The teachers here at Hogwarts can only teach you human knowledge; use the chance you have to let the elves teach you other things."

"Thank you," Julian replied, sighing in relief.

"May I borrow your book once?" Minerva asked, smiling, causing Julian to grin.

"Of course. I'm sorry; I didn't write very properly though. Uh... Why did you ask if I read the book?" He threw Minerva a confused look.

"Because you're mentioned at the end of the book, aren't you, sweetie?"

Julian remained pensive for a moment. "Did they mean me? You know the... boy..." Seeing Minerva nod, he quickly continued, "I don't want to be that. I'm just Julian, Dudley's twin. I don't want to be anything else."

"That's all right, Julian," Minerva replied soothingly.

"Uh... may I ask you something?"

"Of course, Julian; what's wrong?"

"I know we have summer holidays now, but would it be possible for Dudley and me to still have lessons with the elves? I'd also like to learn how to brew potions, but I don't know if Severus would be willing to teach me. I always had to cook at our former home, and perhaps it's not so different."

Minerva smiled at the enthusiastic boy. "I'll speak with Severus and also with Barney. As far as I know Severus is very strict, but I'm sure he'll give you a chance to show him that you're adept at brewing. I remember that your mother was very good at Potions. Concerning classes with the house-elves, I can imagine that they'd be more than happy to teach you, because they're always bored during the summer holidays."

"Thank you so much, Minerva," Julian replied happily. "Where is Dudley by the way?"

"Professor Flitwick is teaching him some Charms for a birthday present he is making for you," Minerva replied, smiling. "You could ask Severus if he could help you brew drops or something like that for Dudley if you want."

"Oh yes, I'd love to brew something for him," Julian said enthusiastically.

"Well, first of all, you have to get back to full health though," Minerva said, sighing as she felt his forehead in concern.

"I already feel much better," Julian replied, yawning. "I think Aunt Poppy should let me try to get up. I promise to be very careful."

"I'll ask her if you may accompany me to the Great Hall for dinner tonight," Minerva promised, "provided that you rest in the meantime." She gently tucked the child in, observing as he slowly drifted off to sleep, before she went to speak with her friend.

HP

When Severus came to check on Julian, the child used the opportunity and asked if he could teach him how to make drops for his brother.

Severus threw the boy a surprised glance. "Brewing potions is not easy. It affords detailed and exact work. It'll take much time, which you could use enjoying yourself gallivanting the castle. Are you sure you want to try brewing?" He raised an eyebrow at the excited child.

"Yes please; when can we try it out?" Julian replied.

Severus smirked. "As soon as Poppy allows you to get up, you can try. However, don't get your hopes up too much. The brewing of potions is a lot of work."

HP

Two days later, Julian excitedly followed Severus into his private potions lab. He curiously looked around, surprised at how huge the room actually was. He had imagined a tiny, untidy room not much different from his cupboard, but this room was huge. It held a large table with several working spaces in the middle. One of the four walls was completely covered with sinks, another with shelves with potions ingredients, the third with shelves containing phials filled with liquids in all possible colours as well as empty phials, and the last wall held a huge magical window that made the laboratory to one of the brightest rooms Julian had ever seen.

"I suggest that you don't make drops for your brother but a liquid, which he can put into his milk for breakfast to add a flavour to it," Severus spoke up, questioningly lifting an eyebrow.

"That's right. I shouldn't give him sweets," Julian agreed, knowing that his twin brother was working hard to lose weight. "Okay. What do I have to do? Can we make strawberry flavour?"

Severus placed a recipe on the table in front of Julian. "These are the necessary ingredients. You find them all in the shelf over there in alphabetical order."

Julian excitedly jumped up and gathered the ingredients, before he picked up the knife Severus had laid out for him and set to work, flinching back badly when Severus interrupted him angrily.

"Stop!" the Potions master hissed. "What do you think you're going to do with that knife?"

"Err... cut the ingredients, sir?" Julian queried, anxiously glancing up at the onyx eyes right over him.

"No," Severus sighed in exasperation as he took the seat next to his ward. "As I told you, brewing is not easy. First of all, if you look at the recipe, it doesn't just say 'cut.' Can you tell me the difference between chop, slice, hack, powder, mash and cut?"

"No sir, I'm sorry, sir; can you please teach me?" Julian gasped, throwing the teacher a pleading look.

During the following two hours, Severus held a monologue about the different kinds of magical and non magical ingredients and the various ways to prepare them, gently showing the boy the different methods of how to cut the ingredients.

He noticed in amazement that Julian was listening intensely as if he was telling him the most intriguing story. '_He seems to be more interested than any of the first years ever are_,' Severus mused as he observed the child.

"Very well, now try to brew the potion," Severus instructed Julian, knowing that it was fairly easy. '_If the boy is half as adept as brewing as his mother was, it shouldn't be a problem for him_,' he thought, closely watching the boy's every move.

Forty minutes later, a flawless pink potion was simmering in the cauldron. "Well done," Severus commended the child, closely sniffing at the liquid. "Now you take one of the larger phials and bottle the potion. Do not forget to properly label the phial with the name of the potion and the brewing date."

Julian happily pressed the phial against his chest. "Thank you so much for helping me brew this. It was much fun. Will you let me brew other things or even help you prepare ingredients or brew, please?"

Severus glanced at his watch. The boy seemed to be very adept, and he could very well use an assistant considering how many potions he had to brew for the hospital wing over the holidays. "Very well," he said finally. "You may assist me brew potions for Poppy. However, we can't do anything more today. Seeing that I already kept you here for three hours, Poppy and Minerva are going to use me for potions ingredients if they don't see you alive and well soon."

Julian chuckled. "But I'm here out of my free will, and I love to be here and help you."

"Nevertheless, you have barely recovered from an illness, and we don't want you to have a setback. You may help me tomorrow morning right after breakfast," Severus replied in a voice of which Julian knew instantly that it didn't allow any protest.

"All right. Thank you so much, sir," he said gratefully, before he retired to his own room in search for his brother.

HP

Two weeks later was the twins' birthday. Julian and Dudley woke up to a huge group of house-elves standing in the middle of their room, holding a huge birthday cake and singing an elven birthday song.

"Thank you," Dudley mumbled sleepily, while Julian still fingered for his glasses.

"We is putting the cake in the Great Hall," Barney informed them, and the elves were gone, before the twins were even alert enough to properly register their presence.

"Julian, get up, it's our birthday," Dudley suddenly shouted, excitedly jumping out of bed.

Ten minutes later, the two boys were dressed and running through the empty corridors of the castle towards the Great Hall, stopping dead in their tracks as soon as they entered the hall. It was beautifully decorated. The house-elves had turned the whole hall into a playground with a huge inflatable dragon that had the function of a slide, several towers to climb and slide down, various kinds of vehicles to drive and fly through the hall and many more attractions.

"Good morning, my sons, and happy birthday," Minerva greeted them, pulling them along to the table, where all the teachers, who had remained at Hogwarts over the holidays, were already assembled and waiting for them.

Julian was much too excited to eat anything but a tiny piece of cake, while Dudley decided to abandon his diet for the day and happily tucked in. When he finished his fifth piece of cake, Minerva turned to the boys.

"Before you lose yourselves in the beautiful playground the house-elves made for you or begin to open your presents," she pointed to a table, on which colourful presents were piled, "I'd like you to follow me into my office for a moment. I have a visitor waiting for you."

Julian and Dudley exchanged a doubtful look. "A visitor for us?" Dudley finally queried, causing Minerva to smirk.

"Follow me," she instructed the boys and walked ahead, leading them to her office.

"Mum!" Dudley let out a gasp, while Julian stepped nearer towards Minerva and the smile vanished from his face as he hid behind his guardian's robes.

_tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked this chapter too._

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	5. Chapter 5

**Magical Twins – Chapter 5**

"Dudley!" Petunia said, pulling her son into a bear hug, before she held him at arm's length. "You look gorgeous. Happy birthday, my boy."

"Thank you, Mum," Dudley replied, stepping over to Julian. "Don't worry, Julian; nothing is going to happen." Glancing at his mother, he queried, "You didn't come to take us from here, did you? Because let me tell you it wouldn't work. Julian and I are very happy here, and this is our home now."

Petunia seemed to be trying hard to fight back the tears at her only son's words; however, she turned to Julian. "Julian, I just want to apologize for the treatment you received in my house. Vernon..." She slowly trailed off.

"It's all right, Aunt Petunia," Julian said softly, hesitantly stepping forward.

"Happy Birthday to you too, Julian. I was very relieved and happy when Professor McGonagall came and told me the two of you were living together as twins and were getting along well. I know that Lily was very happy here at Hogwarts, and I'm glad you're in good hands here."

Petunia and the boys talked for another thirty minutes. None of them noticed that Minerva had long transformed into her cat form and had made herself comfortable in front of the fireplace, not trusting the woman enough to leave her alone with the twins. Only when Petunia seemed to be ready to leave, she unobtrusively transformed back to present the woman with a parchment.

"If you don't mind leaving the children in Professor Snape's and my care, would you perhaps be willing to transfer the guardianship to us? We are already their guardians in the magical world; however, it would be reassuring to have the guardianship for the Muggle world as well, so they were in no danger to end up with your husband as their guardian in case something happened to you."

"You're completely right, Professor, and yes, I will sign the papers, provided you give me the chance to see my son and nephew from time to time."

"I assure you that I will not only arrange meetings between you and the boys, but I'll also make them write to you on a regular basis," Minerva promised, handing Petunia a quill.

A minute later, the parchment rolled itself up and vanished into thin air, causing Petunia, Dudley and Julian to look around in confusion.

"The guardianship papers are charmed to return to the Ministry of Magic as soon as they're signed. There is someone at the Ministry who deals with Muggle affairs like guardianships within the Muggle world, which makes the matter very easy for us. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dursley, for taking your time to visit us here today. Will you be comfortable taking the Floo network back to Mrs. Figg's house?"

"Yes, of course," Petunia replied, smiling. "Thank God my husband is at work and unaware of what I'm doing in the meantime." With that she stepped into the fireplace.

Minerva threw Floo powder in and shouted, "Arabella Figg's place."

Dudley and Julian watched in amazement as Petunia was whisked away.

"Well, shall we return to the Great Hall?" Minerva pulled them out of their reverie. "I believe you have a lot of attractions to play there and many presents to open."

HP

During the next two months, the twins enjoyed their summer holidays in their own ways. While Dudley loved to sleep in, Julian liked to get up early. Normally, he scrambled out of his bed and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast, where at least Minerva, Poppy, Pomona and Albus were assembled. Afterwards, he made his way back to his own room and over to Severus' quarters to help his guardian brew potions for the hospital wing.

Severus realised soon that Julian was at least as adept at brewing as his mother had been and began to properly teach the child, glad to have such a promising assistant. He had an incredibly long list of potions, which Poppy required for the next school year, and from that list he chose the easiest potions to begin with, knowing that there were a few that were based on first-year or second-year level potions. At first, he always made Julian prepare the ingredients; however, noticing how eager the boy was to brew, one day, he allowed him to try brewing an easy potion, while he assisted the child with skilled movements.

Every morning, Julian spent two or three hours with Severus, before he returned to his room, where he met with Dudley, and the two of them popped to the elves' quarters to have one or two hours of classes with the elves. Whenever Barney, the Head house-elf, had time, he taught the boys himself, and Dudley and Julian were amazed at the amount of stories the older elf could tell, which the younger elves, who normally taught them, didn't know yet.

HP

A few days before the end of the holidays, Barney told Julian and Dudley, "I'm very proud of you. You know much more about the elves than many of our own house-elves do. I believe it's time to show you to our elves' library."

"Library?" Dudley gasped, while Julian looked at the elf wide-eyed.

"Yes, we have a huge library here at Hogwarts. No human except for the Headmaster knows about the fact though, and I trust you'll be able to keep it at that. You may use our library whenever you wish, and you may also borrow books. I'll show you how to charm them so they'll look like normal books to the other humans."

"That would be so great!" Julian shouted excitedly. "I'd love to read more about the elves' history and culture. It's so interesting!"

Although Dudley was not as excited about learning more of these things, he kept quiet and agreed with everything Julian told Barney, observing his twin's excitement with amusement. Barney led them to a huge room within the elves' quarters that looked similar to the Hogwarts library and was all over filled with bookshelves, reaching up to the ceiling. Barney led them to a table at one side of the room, just underneath a charmed window and told them they had to write on the table what they were looking for, and the respective books would pop onto the table.

"If you want to return a book, you just put it with its back on top on the table," Barney explained, smiling at the excited children.

Julian looked around in amazement. '_I'll come here as often as I can_,' he resolved, throwing Barney a happy look. "Thank you so much, Barney, for showing us to this brilliant room and allowing us to use it," he said gratefully.

"You're very welcome. I'm very glad that you're so interested in our elves' matters. Now, from next week onwards, classes are going to begin again, and I'm afraid we will mainly have to teach you Muggle primary school knowledge. However, if you're interested, we can also teach you easy Charms and Transfiguration, although you have already learned much about it during your house-elf training."

"Frankly speaking, I'm not interested in Muggle knowledge at all," Julian said sadly, turning to his brother. "What about you, Dudley?"

"No. Magic interests me much more," his twin agreed, causing Barney to laugh.

"We'll see what we can do," the Head elf promised, smirking.

HP

However, more or less by chance things developed completely differently than anticipated.

When Julian woke up in the morning of the first of September, he had a sore throat and didn't feel well at all. '_Oh no, I hope I'm not going to get sick now. I want to attend the Feast tonight and get to know the new students_,' he mused, already having been looking forward to meeting the new first-years for weeks. '_Anyway, I shouldn't let anyone know that I'm not feeling well_.' He dragged himself into Minerva's quarters and quickly excused himself for the day.

"Good morning, Minerva," he said hesitantly, hovering in the door to her office, where she was preparing time-tables. "I just wanted to say that I'm going to spend the whole day in the elves' quarters."

"All right, Julian. Will you have breakfast and lunch there as well?"

"Yes. I'll come to the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast though. I'm looking forward to meet the new students. I just can't decide where to sit."

Minerva laughed. "Well, think about it. Have a good day, sweetie."

"Thank you," Julian replied and returned to his room, only to pop into the elves' library, where he spent the whole day except from a few visits to the elves' kitchen to drink something. Unfortunately, he felt worse by the hour, and by the time Dudley came looking for him an hour before the Welcoming Feast was going to begin, his throat and his neck had become so sore that he could hardly swallow and couldn't move his head anymore. Beside the pain, he felt hot and cold at the same time and the world around him seemed slightly blurry.

"Julian, are you feeling all right?" Dudley asked in concern. "You look ill."

"I feel ill," Julian admitted in a small voice, "but I don't want anyone to know, because I want to attend the Welcoming Feast."

Dudley frowned, pressing the back of his hand against his brother's forehead. "I won't tell, but you're burning up, and I think you should tell them at least before going to bed tonight."

"I'll do that," Julian promised, longing for a pain relieving potion.

Together, the two boys left the elves' quarters and slowly walked to the entrance hall to wait for the students to arrive, unaware of the fact that their presence at the Welcoming Feast would have far-reaching consequences for both of them.

_

* * *

tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked this chapter too. I'm sorry for the delay in updating my stories. Please be patient; I'll try to get back to my usual update speed as soon as possible.  
_

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	6. Chapter 6

**Magical Twins – Chapter 6**

"Where do you want to sit?" Julian whispered, leaning against the wall in exhaustion.

"I don't mind. Shall we choose the Gryffindor table tonight to please Minerva? Severus promised to take us to his House meeting afterwards anyway," Dudley suggested, worriedly observing his twin brother, who gave him a small nod. "Julian, shall I take you to Aunt Poppy? You're definitely ill."

"I know," Julian replied hoarsely, "but I want to attend the Feast. I want to see the Sorting, and I want to get to know the new first-years."

"Very well then, if you feel worse, tell me and I'll fetch Aunt Poppy."

"Thanks, but I'll be fine," Julian whispered back.

Dudley and Julian entered the Great Hall together with the older students, sitting down at the opposite side of the Gryffindor table from where the others sat, knowing the first-years were going to sit next to them. They watched in amazement as Minerva led the first-years into the Hall and conducted the Sorting ceremony.

'_Oh, I wonder where Julian and I are going to end up_,' Dudley mused as he followed the Sorting, worriedly observing his brother from the corner of his eyes. '_I hope he'll be all right tomorrow. It's not much fun to have classes alone, but he seems so ill that I'm surprised Minerva, Severus and Aunt Poppy haven't noticed yet_.'

After quite a while, the Sorting was finished, and the last students had taken their seats right next to Dudley and Julian. '_Oh, twins_,' Dudley realised in surprise as two redheads sat just opposite of them.

"Hello, we're Fred..."

"... and George," the redheads introduced themselves, looking at Dudley and Julian with interest.

"Are you twins as well?"

"Yes, I am Dudley, and that's my brother Julian," Dudley replied, knowing that Julian, who normally was the more talkative of them in conversations, was hardly able to speak. "We're not first-years yet though. We're only nine, but we live at Hogwarts."

"We already have three older brothers here, Bill, Charlie and Percy Weasley," Fred explained.

"And we couldn't wait coming here too. We brought lots of interesting pranks," George added, smirking mischievously.

"Oh, I'd love to attend classes together with you," Julian said longingly, causing the twins to throw him a surprised look.

"Oh, he can speak," George said to Fred.

"I thought he couldn't," Fred replied, grinning.

"Leave him in peace. He's not feeling too well," Dudley said in a small voice, unobtrusively pointing to the nearby Head table, causing the twins to nod their understanding.

Julian liked the twins immediately; however, he felt so ill that he only wished he was in his bed sleeping. He wearily listened to Dudley's conversation with the twins, lazily pushing the food around his plate at the same time, until he nearly fell from his chair startled when Severus' voice suddenly penetrated his foggy mind.

"Mr. Taylor, tell me, did the house-elves throw a huge party this afternoon?"

Julian threw the teacher, who was standing behind Fred and George, a confused glance. "No sir," he replied in a hardly audible voice, causing the man to give him a sharp look and motion him to follow him.

"Yes sir," Julian whispered and slowly left the Hall behind the teacher, who walked ahead, his robes dramatically billowing behind him. '_If he walks so fast, I'll just pop me into my room_,' Julian mused, realising that he wouldn't be able to keep himself on his feet much longer. However, to his surprise, Severus was waiting patiently in front of the Great Hall, looking at him in concern.

"Julian, are you ill?" he queried, causing the boy to nod. "Why didn't you tell anyone? You could have told me, and I'd have given you a potion. Well, let's head back to your room. Can you walk so far?"

"No," Julian whispered, holding on to his guardian's arm. "Sir, may I just pop to my room? No one is supposed to know, but I can pop myself. The house-elves taught me."

"Do that, lie down, and I'll come to check on you in a few minutes," Severus replied softly, watching in amazement as the boy vanished from the spot.

Julian popped straight into his room and scrambled into bed, sighing in relief as he was able to rest his achy head on his pillow. '_I hope Severus comes soon; it's getting difficult to breathe_,' he mused, noticing that his throat seemed to be swollen inside and outside.

Only a few minutes later, Severus strode into the room, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "What exactly is wrong?" he queried as an ice-cold slender hand found its way to Julian's forehead.

"My throat... so sore, can hardly breathe or swallow," Julian whispered, causing Severus to feel around his neck.

"Everything is swollen; it could be tonsillitis," Severus said thoughtfully as he pointed his wand at a tissue on Julian's night table, transfiguring it to a thermometer. Waving his wand at the boy, he changed his clothes to soft pyjamas, before he pulled the top down over Julian's shoulder, easing the thermometer under the boy's armpit. "Try not to move," he instructed the boy, pulling his covers up to the child's chin as he noticed that he was shivering violently.

While they were waiting, Severus lit the tip of his wand and, motioning the child to open his mouth, closely examined his throat, noticing that his earlier diagnosis seemed to be correct. "I'm sorry," he apologized to Julian, noticing that he once more shivered violently as he touched him with cold hands to take the thermometer back. "Thirty-nine point four," he stated. "I believe that is quite high, even for tonsillitis. We better call Poppy, just to be sure. Misty," he called Poppy's elf, who appeared within seconds, "please ask Poppy to urgently come to Julian's room."

"Of course," Misty replied and hurriedly popped away.

While they were waiting for the Mediwitch to arrive, Severus transfigured another tissue into a cold cloth and gently bathed the boy's flushed face. Suddenly, Julian noticed in surprise that Misty popped into the room. She seemed to be invisible, but he was still able to see her faint form. She waved her hand over him, causing Julian to feel much better. "Thank you," he whispered, causing Misty to pop away and Severus to slightly incline his head, apparently thinking Julian had talked to him.

A few minutes later, Poppy hurried into the room and, after a glance at Julian, waved her wand over him. "A bad case of tonsillitis," she said thoughtfully. "Julian, is this the first time?"

"Yes," he replied, throwing the Healer an anxious look.

"Very well, then we'll try to heal you with potions," Poppy said gently and turned to Severus to instruct him which potions Julian would need.

"Poppy, I'm sorry, but could you fetch everything from my personal lab? I need to return to the Great Hall," Severus replied, glancing at his wrist watch.

"Of course," Poppy replied, nodding her understanding. "I'll stay with Julian until one of you returns." She called Misty and asked her to fetch the potions for her and stay in the hospital wing and call her in case she was needed.

Minerva was the first to return to her quarters, but by then Julian was already fast asleep, unaware of the fact that the adults took turns looking after him during the night.

HP

In the morning, Julian woke up by Dudley's alarm clock. He sat up to see if his brother had woken up, noticing immediately that he was still sick. He could breathe properly, but his throat was still very sore, and he still felt hot and cold at the same time. His ears felt as if they were filled with cotton wool, and the world around him was strangely foggy. '_Aunt Poppy said it wasn't contagious, so maybe they'll allow me to attend our classes_,' he mused, just when Minerva entered the room.

"Good morning, Dudley and Julian. Dudley, it's time to get up, Julian, how are you feeling?" she said briskly, causing Dudley to sigh in exasperation, mumbling something about 'very early.'

"Better," Julian replied in a small voice, causing Minerva to snort.

"I believe that immediately. You look extremely healthy today," she replied, throwing him a stern look as she proceeded to take his temperature, once again causing Julian to shiver at the cold touch. "Your fever is still very high, and you'll need to stay in bed today," she told him a short while later, before she gently helped him to sit up and drink his potions. "I'll inform Barney that you can't attend classes today. I'm sorry I can't stay with you, but I have to give out the time tables at breakfast and to teach my classes. Poppy will look after you as soon as breakfast begins, and I'll come and check on you after lunch. Take care and try to sleep as much as possible, child."

Minerva placed a kiss on Julian's hot forehead, before she swiftly left the room to hurry to the Great Hall.

"Is it all right to leave you alone and go to breakfast?" Dudley asked hesitantly, feeling very sorry for his brother.

"Of course," Julian replied, throwing Dudley a sad smile that didn't really reach his eyes.

"Shall I bring you anything from breakfast?"

"No thank you, I only want water, and I've enough here," Julian replied absentmindedly, deep in thoughts. "Dudley, listen. Can you tell..." He quickly interrupted himself as Severus strode into the room, giving him a sharp look.

"Not much better it seems," he said softly, placing an ice-cold hand on Julian's forehead. "Did Minerva already make you drink your potions?"

"Yes sir," Julian replied, smiling, feeling very grateful that both of his guardians took the time to come and check on him, although he didn't like them to make a fuss. "It's all right, sir. I'm sure you'll be needed at the Great Hall."

"That's true," Severus sighed, promising to come again during lunch break.

"All right, now listen, Dudley," Julian began once more, glad when he managed to give his twin his instructions, before Poppy entered the room.

"Very well," Dudley promised and hurriedly left the room to be in time for breakfast and do Julian the favour he had asked for.

_

* * *

tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked this chapter too._

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	7. Chapter 7

**Magical Twins – Chapter 7**

"Hello Julian, how're you feeling?" Poppy queried, waving her wand to cast a diagnostic spell.

"Much better," Julian replied softly. "Can I get up?"

"No, your condition hasn't improved at all yet. You only feel better, because you're under the influence of the potions," the Mediwitch replied, sighing. "What would you like to eat, Julian?"

Julian threw her a terrified look. "Nothing please; I'm not hungry at all. I only want to drink water."

"So much about feeling much better," Poppy muttered to herself as she helped Julian to sit up and made him drink some water. "Drink slowly please; you don't want to drown," she admonished him lightly as the child tried to greedily gulp down the cool liquid that felt soothing to his burning throat.

HP

In the meantime, Dudley had breakfast at the Gryffindor table, once more sitting together with the Weasley twins. "As soon as you've finished eating, I have to speak with you in private," he whispered to the twins as soon as Minerva had returned to the Head table after giving out the time tables.

"But we have to stick to our classmates; otherwise, we don't know where the classroom is," Fred replied, glancing at his brother.

"Exactly," George agreed. "Does it have to do with a prank?"

"I'll tell you outside, and Julian will take you to your classroom. What do you have first?" He glanced at Fred's timetable. "Ah, Transfiguration, all right."

"Well then, let's hear what the plot is," George decided after a glance at his twin, and the three boys stood up, trying to leave the Great Hall as innocently as possible.

In the entrance hall, Dudley told the stunned twins about Julian's and his classes with the house-elves and about the plan Julian had made that morning.

"Why would he want to attend our classes..."

"... especially if he's ill?" the twins queried.

Dudley sighed. "As I told you, normally the house-elves teach us, and they already told us we already have all the knowledge about the elves, so they have to teach us Muggle knowledge, which both of us are not very interested in. Since Julian isn't allowed to attend our class this morning, he decided to get away and invisibly join you for your first classes. He just doesn't know what your first class is, and I think he feels a bit apprehensive about it, so he asks you to wait here for him. He'll tell you where the Transformation classroom is."

"This sounds like fun, don't you think so, Forge?"

"I think so, Gred. Let's wait in the alcove over there, where people won't easily see us."

"Tell him to hurry please," they said simultaneously, causing Dudley to smirk.

"I will. Thanks for your help." With that he ran along the corridor, before he turned himself invisible and popped into Julian's and his room, groaning inwardly as he saw Poppy fussing over Julian.

"What was that?" Poppy asked in confusion.

"What?" Julian asked innocently. He had heard the small pop, knowing his brother had returned to their room. "May I try to sleep for a while?" he asked softly, tiredly laying back.

"Of course, sweetie, sleep well. I'll come to check on you shortly before the end of the last morning class," Poppy replied, gently tucking him in, before she bustled away.

"Thank God," Dudley said as he made himself visible. "The twins are waiting in a small alcove right next to the entrance hall. You look worse for the wear though. Are you sure you're well enough to attend classes?"

"I'm not, but this is a chance today, and I'm not going to miss it. If I feel worse, I can just pop back here at anytime, so it's no problem," Julian croaked as he scrambled out of bed and made himself invisible.

"Well then, good luck and have fun," Dudley smirked and popped to the elves' quarters for his classes.

Julian downed another glass of water and popped himself to the alcove, where the Weasley twins were waiting. "Good morning," he whispered, causing the twins to jump in surprise.

"Julian, is that you?" George queried.

"Yes, it's me," Julian whispered, before he made himself visible to the twins, careful to remain invisible to everyone else. "Now, what class do you have first?"

"Transfiguration," the twins replied, causing Julian to groan, knowing he was in no condition to climb so many steps.

"All right then, climb up the large staircase until I'll tell you otherwise," he instructed the older boys and popped himself ahead, making sure they were following him.

Just in time, they reached the Transfiguration classroom. The twins waited until everyone else was seated, before they sat in the last row, where they found three empty seats together. Julian let himself sink on the third seat, incredibly relieved to be able to sit down.

"Julian, are you all right?" Fred asked worriedly as he took in the younger boy's heavy breathing.

"I'll be fine. Do you see the cat on the teacher's desk? That's Professor McGonagall."

"Are you delirious?" Fred queried. "That's a cat."

"Believe me, I know her cat form. She and Professor Snape are my guardians," Julian whispered, resting his achy head on the table in front of him. '_Thank God no one except for the twins can see me anyway_,' he mused as Minerva jumped from the table and transformed into her usual self, causing the first-years to let out a collective gasp.

Julian lazily watched how the students tried to transfigure a toothpick into a needle. '_Why do they use wands for that?_' he mused in surprise. Neither Dudley nor he possessed a wand yet, and the house-elves were performing all the magic just by waving their hands, just like they had taught Dudley and himself. Seeing that Fred and George were just giggling about something, he quickly waved his hand at Fred's toothpick, causing the twin to gasp loudly at the sight of the needle lying in front of him.

"Very well done, Mr. Weasley. Five points to Gryffindor," the teacher commended him promptly, causing Fred to stammer, "Err... I...I have no idea how I managed that, Professor." He waved his wand at the object that Minerva had already transfigured back and spoke the incantation to no avail.

"Well, I'd like all of you to practise this transfiguration until our next class," Minerva said crisply, dismissing the first-years.

"I'm sorry, Fred," Julian whispered, causing the twins to laugh.

"No problem, provided you help us when we need it," George replied, smirking.

"Of course. What's your next class?"

"Potions," the twins replied, groaning. "We heard the professor is an absolute git. Is that true?"

"No, he's my guardian together with Professor McGonagall, and he's really very nice, provided you're interested in Potions. But I can help you. He already taught me a lot. Go to the Potions classroom with the others; I'll meet you there."

Julian popped back into his room and lay down on his bed, knowing he could rest for fifteen minutes until the beginning of the second morning class.

This time, the twins couldn't manage to reserve a chair for him, and Julian decided to sit on the floor right next to the classroom door, leaning against the wall. '_I could even lie down here, knowing that no one is able to see me_,' he mused but didn't dare doing so, afraid that someone would step on him if he fell asleep.

From his spot at the back of the classroom, Julian watched the students brew an easy potion, remembering that it had been the first potion Severus had taught him to brew. From time to time, he scrambled onto his feet and walked over to the twins, observing their brewing process for a while, before he proceeded to sit down again.

The last morning class was History of Magic. However, Julian remembered that Poppy was going to come to check on him before the end of the class, and he felt too ill to attend another class. '_History of Magic won't be very interesting anyway_,' he mused as he popped back into his room and greedily gulped down some water, before he stretched out on his bed in relief.

'_How could I be so stupid and go to class?_' he thought. '_I feel even worse than before. On the other hand, I really liked attending classes; perhaps I should try to convince Barney to let Dudley and me or at least me go to the first-years' classes instead of teaching us Muggle knowledge_.'

He was pulled out of his thoughts when Poppy entered the room, waving her wand at him. "What have you been doing this morning?" she queried in disbelief.

"Nothing," Julian lied, shivering violently as the Mediwitch felt around his neck with icy hands.

"Your condition is much worse than before. I'm afraid I have to take you with me for observation," she said thoughtfully and lit the tip of her wand to examine his throat.

"Oh please don't take me with you, Aunt Poppy," Julian whispered, throwing the witch a pleading look.

"Well, we'll see. I'll come again right before the last afternoon class ends, and if you're still getting worse, I'll need to move you to the hospital wing. I have to go back now; Minerva or Severus are going to come and have lunch with you in a few minutes." With that she spelled the potions straight into the boy's system and, after a worried look at the child, retreated to the hospital wing.

Julian sighed in relief as he felt the potions take effect. '_I'll only attend Herbology and then come back here and skip Defence_,' he mused as he slowly drifted off to sleep, until a faint pop made his mind turn back to consciousness.

It was Misty. She stood next to his bed, waving her hand over him, before she asked sternly, "What have you been doing, Julian? I can sense that you popped yourself five times during the morning. You were very bold because you aggravated your condition very much, and Misty is going to punish you after your recovery."

_

* * *

tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked this chapter too._

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	8. Chapter 8

**Magical Twins – Chapter 8**

Julian threw the upset elf a terrified look and told her in a hardly audible voice how he had spent the morning. "Please don't tell Aunt Poppy or my guardians," he begged Misty, who was looking at him in disapproval.

"Very well, I'll not tell the humans; however, I'll inform Barney, and you wills serve detention with me looking after the sick elves for seven days."

"All right," Julian agreed immediately, sighing in relief as he heard his punishment. '_That could be much worse_,' he realised, having seen small elves get spankings by the older ones.

"Misty," he croaked, "could you perhaps ask Barney if Dudley and I could perhaps attend the first-years classes instead of learning Muggle things? We promise to do all the work the students have to do and hand them in to Barney or one of the elves he makes responsible for us."

Misty sighed in exasperation. "Julian, Misty wills speaks to Barney. However, you is going to do what Mistress Poppy and I says." She laid two fingers on his forehead, causing a red number to appear in the air. "You wills remain in bed this afternoon. Your fever is too high considering Mistress Poppy just gaves you a fever reducer." She gently moved her index finger over the boy's face, causing Julian to lean into the cold touch.

"That feels so good," he whispered gratefully. "Thank you, Misty."

"That's my special healing magic," the elf smiled. "Now let me see your throat." Again, she used her healing magic, causing his burning throat to cool down a little and the swelling to recede a bit. "That's all I cans do for you at the moment, but I'll come back to check on you again in an hour." With that, she waved her hand over Julian, causing him to drift off to sleep before he could do as much as blink.

HP

Due to Poppy's treatment and Misty's Healing magic Julian's condition improved quickly, although he still remained ill, and Poppy kept him in bed for the whole week. However, unbeknownst to the humans, Misty allowed him to attend the first two morning classes every day, provided he popped back to bed and called her as soon as he felt worse.

Julian loved the classes he attended together with the twins, and as soon as Poppy finally allowed him out of bed, he popped himself to Barney and, with the help of Misty and Dudley, convinced the Head house-elf to allow Dudley and him to attend the first-years' classes.

Barney, who had already heard about the matter from Misty, grudgingly agreed. "However, you must fulfil a few conditions," he said sternly. "First of all, you must remain invisible at all times. Secondly, you must do all the homework the human students have to do. You will hand them in to me the evening before they are due in class. Thirdly, we'll have one class together, during which I'm going to teach you Muggle knowledge, right after dinner every evening."

Julian agreed immediately, causing Dudley to groan. "But we won't have time to play or hang out with the Weasley twins at all."

"You may enjoy your time or do your homework together with your friends between the last afternoon class and dinner as well as on the weekends," Barney replied firmly. "You will also have time after our evening class, which will only take one hour."

HP

From the following day onwards, Dudley and Julian attended classes together with the twins. They noticed soon that it was not only much fun, but also a lot of work, especially as they also had their evening classes with Barney, who gave them homework as well. To the twins' relief, Barney didn't only make them study Muggle knowledge but also made them brew the potions, which they hadn't been able to brew in class or practise the spells their classmates had learned in class.

Out of class, they spent most of the time either in the elves' library or together with the Weasley twins in the Room of Requirement, since they couldn't do their homework in their own room, fearing that Minerva or Severus might discover their secret.

The human teachers didn't notice the two invisible students at all, and their guardians and god parents merely wondered why the twins came down with several illnesses even more frequently than during the last school year, although they seemed to spend the whole day in the elves' quarters.

"Don't forget that they take all their meals at the House tables," Severus said thoughtfully. "That should be enough to catch whatever is ailing the students."

"I'm surprised how much time they spend with the Weasley twins," Minerva spoke up. "Julian told me last week the twins had taught them to fly, when I saw them play Quidditch together with the Gryffindor first-years."

Unbeknownst to the adults, Barney even made the twins take the tests the first-years took in class, and Dudley and Julian managed to pass all of their tests faultlessly. The two boys were very proud when Barney showed them the corrected tests on the first day of the winter holidays and told them they had done extremely well on all of their tests.

"I'm very proud of you, children," he told them, causing the twins to blush with pride, knowing that Barney was not one to easily praise someone.

"Thank you so much for allowing us to attend classes. They're a lot of fun," Julian said gratefully.

"I love it, too," Dudley agreed. "Are we going to have classes with you during the holidays?"

Barney remained thoughtful for a moment. "No," he said finally. "I believe that you worked very hard, taking my classes in addition to the human classes. So, no; I just want you to rest and enjoy Christmas. You have to do your homework of course, but that's all."

"All right; that's good, because I'd love to make Christmas presents for everyone," Julian said excitedly, before his face all of a sudden took on a sad expression.

"What's wrong?" Dudley and Barney queried simultaneously, looking at the boy in concern.

"Father Christmas won't bring me anything anyway; he never did," Julian replied in a small voice, averting his eyes to the floor.

"Julian was never allowed to have Christmas with us," Dudley explained quietly. "Julian, I think Father Christmas will bring you something, or else I won't receive anything either. But it doesn't matter. I'm going to draw pictures for everyone. Professor Flitwick promised to help me charm them, so they can move."

"All right. I'm going to write a story and give it to everyone then," Julian replied, feeling very much consoled, and his expression changed to one of determination.

During the next few days, the twins were very busy preparing Christmas presents. While Dudley drew pictures of Santa Clause in wizarding robes handing out presents to people in the Great Hall, Julian made up a story of a little elf with the name Liltyke, who had lost his elf family in a thunderstorm and was looking for his family that he finally found at Hogwarts after an exciting travel, during which he made friends with several kinds of animals. The story was quite long and it was hard work to write it down several times, but he did his best, determined to give his story to Minerva, Severus, Poppy, Barney and Misty.

"Dudley, shouldn't you send a picture to your mother?" Julian suddenly remembered to ask in the morning of Christmas Eve.

"Oh yes, I did that," Dudley replied, smiling. "Minerva told me I should owl it to Mrs. Figg; she'd give it to Mum."

As pleased as Julian was with his twin's answer, thinking of the Dursleys caused him to reflect on his time at his relatives' house. '_What if Dudley and Barney were wrong, and Father Christmas won't bring anything for me?_' he mused. '_Everyone will know that I'm a bad boy. What if they only keep Dudley and throw me out?_' A small voice at the back of his mind told him, '_That's nonsense. Minerva told you often enough that she loves you and that she's proud of you and Dudley. This is your home now, and they won't send you away_.'

However, Julian didn't want to listen to the small, reasoning voice. He made himself so upset that he spent most part of the night awake, pondering what to do if the worst happened. Unfortunately, after thinking about the matter for hours, he felt very sick to his stomach, and just when Severus entered the room to check on the boys before going to bed at two o'clock in the morning, Julian's stomach decided to relieve itself of its contents.

"Julian, what happened?" Severus asked in surprise and concern as he scourgified the mess with a flick of his wand. "Are you sick?"

"No, I'm fine," Julian muttered, taking small sips of water from the glass Severus pressed against his lips.

"Did you wake up feeling unwell?" Severus asked, and a cool, slender hand found its way to Julian's forehead, where it remained for a moment.

"No, I couldn't sleep," Julian confessed in a small voice, pondering if he should tell Severus what was bothering him.

"Why not? Did you have a bad dream?" Severus asked, gently wiping sweat off the child's forehead with a conjured cloth.

"Yes," Julian lied and averted his eyes to his bedcovers, suddenly feeling bad to lie to his kind guardian.

_

* * *

tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked the chapter._

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	9. Chapter 9

**Magical Twins – Chapter 9**

"Well, then accompany me to the living room. I'll give you something for your stomach, and then we'll drink a hot cocoa and you'll tell me about your dream without having to fear that we disturb Dudley," Severus decided, gently helping the child out of his bed.

Severus motioned Julian to sit on the sofa, sat next to the child and made him drink a calming draught, before he called one of the house-elves and ordered two cups of cocoa. "Your stomach should be well enough to stomach some cocoa. Drink up and then tell me about your dream."

"It wasn't a dream," Julian hesitantly admitted. "Um... It's just that... Father Christmas never brought me a present, because I wasn't a good boy, although Dudley received lots of presents every year. What if it's the same here? If everyone gets presents except for me? Everyone will know that I'm not a good boy. I know this sounds stupid, but you won't send me away, will you?"

Severus was too shocked to act immediately. "Julian, are you delirious?" he asked finally, carefully laying his arm around the boy's back. Why would we send you away? And who in the world told you that you weren't a good boy?"

"My aunt and uncle," Julian replied in a small voice.

Severus let out a long sigh. "Julian, please listen to me. Your relatives were wrong. They didn't behave well towards you. Just because you're magical they told you such things. However, we all love you, and we know that you're a very good child. I'm absolutely sure Father Christmas will come and leave a present for you, just like for everyone else."

"Are you sure?" Julian asked hesitantly, nestling deeper into his guardian's embrace.

"Yes, I am sure, and I want you to remember what I just told you. You're a very good boy, and Minerva and I are very proud of you and Dudley. And now, I believe it's time for you to sleep. If you feel well enough tomorrow, you may help me brew a potion in the afternoon."

"I'd like that," Julian whispered softly and made himself comfortable, resting his head on the teacher's lap, drifting off to sleep in the blink of an eye.

Severus looked at his ward, glad that the boy felt comfortable enough to sleep on his lap with a smile playing on his lips. "Happy Christmas, Julian," he whispered, smiling as well as he leaned back to bring himself into a half-way comfortable position to get some sleep.

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

Severus and Julian remained in their position until Minerva and Dudley came by to look for them late in the morning, causing Harry to wake up. Severus quickly explained that Julian hadn't been feeling well during the night and had therefore ended up sleeping on his lap.

"Are you feeling better now?" Minerva asked in concern, throwing Julian a worried look.

"Yes, I'm fine," Julian replied, feeling very much reassured by the words Severus had said to him during the night and grateful that his guardian hadn't told the others the entire truth. '_Even if I don't get Christmas presents, they'll still like me and keep me here together with Dudley_,' he reminded himself as they headed to the Great Hall to search for Christmas presents under the huge Christmas tree.

A short while later, all his fears were forgotten when he was busy unwrapping a huge pile of presents, and Severus observed in amazement how his eyes were twinkling with joy.

'_This was the best Christmas ever_,' Julian mused as Dudley and he went to bed in the evening.

"I'm looking forward to meeting the Weasley twins tomorrow," Dudley's voice penetrated his thoughts.

"Yeah, me too," Julian agreed, yawning. "It was really nice of their mother to Floo-call Minerva and invite us. I'm curious to see what a wizard's home looks like."

HP

'_Their home is absolutely amazing. It's not only built by magic like Minerva told us, but everything here works with magic_,' Julian mused as he observed the pots in the kitchen washing up by themselves, while Mrs. Weasley pulled one after the other in a bear hug and welcomed them. Before they could even greet all of the twins' many siblings though, Fred and George pulled them into their own room.

"We have to show you something," they said mischievously, leading the younger twins to a corner of their room, in which a lime green potion was simmering in an old cauldron. "We're trying to make a potion that turns everyone's heads to ducks' heads," George explained, smirking.

"It's not our own invention; our brother Bill got us an amazing book for Christmas," Fred added hurriedly, noticing Julian's surprised look. "It's full of easy prank potions."

"Have you tried it out already?" Dudley asked excitedly. "We could brew it at Hogwarts and prank the whole school. Julian is very good at brewing."

"No, I'm not, but yeah, that's going to be fun," Julian agreed. "May I see the book?"

George handed him the book, while Fred motioned Dudley to help him bottle the potion into several small phials. "Let's try to mix it under the dessert Mum is making for lunch," he chuckled, pulling Dudley out of the room with him.

Ten minutes later, the two boys were back with big grins on their faces. "Don't eat from the chocolate pudding," they instructed the others.

"I'd like to try this one," Julian pointed to a recipe, "and that one here looks good as well. Do you think Severus will allow us to use the Potions classroom?"

"Professor Snape? Julian, I know he is your guardian..."

"... but do you think he'll let you brew prank potions?"

Julian grinned at the older twins' disbelieving looks. "Did you notice Professor Dumbledore turn into a bear a few weeks ago?"

"Of course, but..." The twins threw him dumbfounded looks.

"Professor Snape and I brewed the prank potion together. In fact, Severus wanted to get back to the Headmaster for something, and he asked me if I wanted to assist. So he might allow us to brew, if we show him the recipe. I'll ask him tonight," Julian promised.

The older twins' potion was a huge success, and everyone except for the two couples of twins spotted duck faces after lunch.

"Let's go and play Quidditch right before the potion wears off to give them a bit of time to cool down before they'll be able to speak with us," George suggested, causing everyone including the duck headed family members apart from Mrs. Weasley to head outside into the garden.

HP

When Julian and Dudley returned to Hogwarts in the evening with a copy of the potions book that Mrs. Weasley had gently made for them, Julian headed straight into Severus' quarters to ask about the prank potions.

Severus remained pensive for a moment, carefully skimming the recipes. "Julian, you may use the Potions classroom under several conditions," he finally said and explained, "You will tell me in advance that you want to brew, you will show me the recipe beforehand; you will only brew if you're neither sick nor tired, you will be extremely careful, and of course you will clean up afterwards. If possible, I'll try to be in the classroom, which is not because I don't trust you, but because the older students would wonder why two first years and two younger children, who aren't even students yet, are allowed to brew on their own."

"Thank you so much," Julian blurted out and hesitantly threw both arms around his guardian, pulling him into a light hug.

"Julian, I'm glad you love to brew potions, and I know that I can trust you to be careful and responsible," Severus replied softly as he gently ruffled the boy's hair. "I'm looking forward to having you in my class in a few years' time."

HP

During the next few months, the four friends often brewed potions together, which they utilized on random tables at meal times to the huge pleasure of the rest of the school. Since Severus used to be in the classroom together with the two couples of twins, no one guessed that they could be the culprits, and the whole school kept wondering who was behind the funny pranks that most frequently affected the teachers' table.

'_I wonder if we'll have to attend the first-years classes again when we officially enter Hogwarts as students_,' Julian mused towards the end of the school year, groaning inwardly at the thought. '_I'd love to continue through all of the Hogwarts years together with the Weasley twins. They're the best friends I could ever imagine to have_.'

However, his fears were completely unnecessary, because something happened that alerted the adults to the fact that Dudley and Julian were attending the first-years' classes.

_

* * *

tbc..._

_Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I hope you liked the chapter._

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


	10. Chapter 10

**Magical Twins – Chapter 10**

Two days before the end of the test week and the beginning of the summer holidays, Julian came down with the bad cold Dudley had caught a few days before. Not wanting to miss any of the tests, he tried to hide from everyone how bad he felt. He struggled through the theoretical part of the Transfiguration test on Thursday afternoon, glad that being invisible also hid his coughing and sneezing from the people around him.

"Julian, don't let go of your parchment; otherwise it'll become visible," Dudley whispered, throwing him a concerned look. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yes, sorry," Julian whispered back, hurriedly touching the parchment with his left hand as he tried to concentrate on the test, knowing he had to hand it over to Barney right after the class.

On Friday morning, they had their practical Potions test. Dudley and Julian merely watched their classmates brew, knowing they had to absolve the test with Barney after dinner that evening. Julian shivered violently as he observed Fred next to him insert the ingredients. His cold had worsened immensely. His throat and his head were very sore, and he had the impression as if his head was filled with cotton wool. When another shiver shook his body, he laid his arms on the table to rest his achy head, sighing in relief as he closed his eyes. Unfortunately, his actions caused Fred to observe him in concern, knowing that no half way healthy Julian would show such behaviour in class, even if he was invisible.

"Fred, your potion!" George hissed; however, it was too late to for his twin to react, and seconds later, a white mist evaporated from Fred's cauldron, causing everyone sitting nearby to cough.

With a flick of his wand, Severus banished the potion, raising an eyebrow at Fred in surprise, knowing that the twins were the best brewers of the class.

After lunch break, the students were back in the potions classroom for the theoretical part of the test. Ignoring the worried looks he received from Dudley and the Weasley twins Julian tried to concentrate on the test. However, probably due to the white mist he had inhaled a few hours earlier, his condition had worsened immensely. His chest had become very sore, he had problems to breathe, and the letters on the test parchment were blurry and seemed to be dancing up and down the lines. One minute, he was shivering from the cold dungeon air, and an instant later, he felt the hot summer sun creep through the thick walls of the castle. Nevertheless, he tried to understand the questions and reply, noticing that the test was very easy.

Alerted by Julian's laboured breathing, half-way through the afternoon Fred unobtrusively reached for Julian's hand, letting out a gasp at the heat the younger boy radiated. "Dudley, you must go and fetch your elves' healer; Julian is burning up, and he can hardly breathe."

Becoming very worried, Dudley popped away and returned with Misty, who waved her hand over Julian, before she grabbed the child and popped away to the boys' room.

"I knew that he had a cold, and even if he didn't notice, I checked on him and tried to make him feel a little better yesterday and this morning, but how could he end up with pneumonia all of a sudden?" Misty asked incredulously, looking in disbelief at the pink number displaying Julian's temperature, before she popped away to fetch Poppy.

"What happened?" Poppy queried as she bustled into the room, looking at Dudley and Julian in concern.

"Potions accident this morning," Julian mumbled, "can't breathe."

"A Potions accident?" Poppy asked incredulously. "I thought you had classes with the elves?"

"Let me explain, Dudley," Misty suddenly spoke up, making herself visible. "Mistress Poppy, only Barney and Misty has been knowing about this, but Dudley and Julian has been attending the first-years' classes apart from Barney's Muggle lessons."

Dudley quickly jumped into the conversation, not wanting Poppy to become angry at Misty. "It's not Misty's fault, Aunt Poppy. She only knew by chance, because she is always watching over Julian and me. We had to hand in all the homework and tests to Barney, but we managed everything except for today's test, because Julian became so ill."

Hearing about the Potions incident in the morning that had obviously aggravated Julian's condition, Poppy called Severus, who listened to the whole story in disbelief.

"Yes, the imploded potion might have aggravated his condition; however, the pneumonia potion will take care of it," he said to Poppy, who sent Misty to fetch the potion, before he turned to Dudley. "You have been attending the first years' classes for the whole school year without anyone noticing?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, only Barney, Misty and the Weasley twins knew, but please don't be angry at any of them. Everything was my idea, and we had also Math classes with Barney in the evenings," Julian croaked, feeling much better as the potions kicked in and Misty had spelled a huge amount of Healing magic into his body. "And Fred's potions incident this morning was all my fault, not Fred's. Can you please give him the points he would received if his potion had been all right?"

"Don't make yourself so upset, Julian," Poppy said, gently pushing him back to a lying position. "You're very ill and have to rest. Apart from that, no one is angry at Barney or Misty; we're all very surprised, that's all. Now try to sleep for a while."

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

While Dudley took his Potions test together with Barney in the evening and Misty was watching over a very ill Julian, Minerva, Severus, Poppy and Albus were assembled in Poppy's office, discussing the Taylor twins' education. Shortly before, Barney had handed all his notes concerning the twins' tests, practice and homework to Severus, and the teachers looked at the data in surprise.

"They seem to have properly completed their first Hogwarts year, except for today's Potions test of course," Minerva said thoughtfully, "and that with absolute best marks."

"I still can't believe it," Poppy threw in. "They are two years younger than all of the other first-years, they have been ill a lot during this school year, they had additional Math classes with Barney, and still they finished as the top students of the year."

"Exactly," Severus agreed. "I suggest we just allow them to continue with their second year after the holidays." He questioningly raised an eyebrow at Minerva, knowing how protective she was of the twins.

"Very well," the Headmaster threw in pensively. "However, in that case we need to get them sorted."

"I think they already sorted themselves into the elves' House," Poppy smirked. "I only knew today that Misty is not only my personal house-elf but also the Healer of the elves. She has been watching over Julian and Dudley the whole time. She told me she even gave Julian detention and made him help caring for her patients after he attended class in spite of being ill. A few times, I wondered why Julian or Dudley could recover faster than expected, and I only learned today that Misty can do Healing magic on her patients. She told me she never used it on humans before, but since the elves consider Dudley and Julian as elves, she often helps the boys with her magic."

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

"Misty?" Julian whispered, sensing the elf's magic near him, even if he kept his achy eyes closed.

"I is here, Julian," Misty replied softly, reaching for his hot hand. "What's wrong?"

"What is going to happen? Will they allow Dudley and me to continue attending classes?"

Misty let out a small sigh. "I is not knowing, Julian, I hopes so, but you musts not ponders about this now. You is very ill and you needs to rest and not thinks about such things."

"I can't sleep. My chest hurts, and I'm too worried about what is going to happen," Julian replied, shivering.

Misty gently laid two fingers on his forehead, causing a pink number to appear in the air. "Your fever is too high to worry," she told him as she gently moved her index finger over his face, causing Julian to lean into the cold touch.

"You're brilliant, Misty," Julian whispered gratefully, letting out a few harsh coughs.

"No, sweetie, I is only a house-elf," the elf replied softly.

"You're a Healer elf and a brilliant one," Julian objected, resolving, '_When I'm big, I'm going to improve things for the elves_.'

"Thank you, my boy; now I wants you to sleep," Misty said, unobtrusively casting a light sleeping spell at the child.

HP

The twins' guardians decided to let the children continue with their classes, and Minerva, Severus and Poppy overruled the Headmaster, who insisted in getting them sorted. The Headmaster was not yet convinced, but when Barney showed up with the results of Dudley's Potions exams, he managed to persuade Dumbledore.

"These kids don't belong to a special House; they're Hogwarts' children. The castle knows them, they can speak to the castle, and all the elves have accepted them into the huge family of elves. You can't take them away from all of us and put them into a House. Mirai, who is a Seer and can see into the future, told me once that Julian will be the one able to improve the relationship between the humans and the elves."

"Very well," Dumbledore grudgingly agreed, slowly unwrapping a lemon drop. "Since you saw fit to decide over the twins' education over all our heads, I entrust you with the continuation of their education. While they will be allowed to formally continue their Hogwarts education, not only their human guardians, Minerva and Severus, but also you will be responsible for them.

Barney bowed deeply. "Thank you, Master Headmaster Professor Dumbledore, sir. Misty and I will act as their guardians in the elves' world."

**The End?**

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This seems a good point to end this story – or do you want me to continue it through all the Hogwarts years? I'm not sure...  
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_Thank you so much for your kind reviews, I really appreciate them!_

_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


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